1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for leaving space between paper and a head of an ink-jet printer. In particular, the present invention relates to an apparatus preventing the head from inappropriately staining paper with ink by preventing inadvertent contact between the paper and the head.
2. Discussion of Related Art
There are various kinds of paper for printing, such as papers of elasticities of 24 pounds, 20 pounds (regarded as being strong paper) and 16 pounds (regarded as being weak paper). When a paper with weak elasticity is used as a print medium, the head may inappropriately stain the paper with ink. On this matter, exemplars of the contemporary art include U.S. Pat. No. 5,366,301 issued to Martin et al. discussing "a system for use in an ink-jet printer having a printhead and an opposing platen capable of movement toward and away from the printer's printhead to define a record media gap therebetween." The system has a record media detector 24. The detector "includes mounting bosses 24a which are captured by hinge member 22b so as to pivotally mount the detector to record media guide 22. U.S. Pat. No. 4,682,188 issued to Castellano discusses "a head [which] comprises a closed container carrying internal and external electrodes and a nozzle and is mounted removably on a carriage on which it is held by a permanent magnet in such a way that the head bears with the external electrode against a metal sheet." A protuberance "adjacent to the nozzle" presses against the metal sheet "which in turn presses the paper against a platen." The protuberance establishes "the jet-to-paper spacing." U.S. Pat. No. 5,608,430 issued to Jones et al. discuss "a print head tilt angle positioner [which] includes a scroll cam, a tilt arm, a flexure, a tilt angle adjuster, and a biasing spring." This is part of a machine "to control the distance of the print head from the image receiving drum." U.S. Pat. No. 5,576,744 issued to Niikura et al. discuss "a recording apparatus for recording information with a recording head having a plurality of recording elements while keeping a designated distance between the recording head and a recording medium [which] has an information acquisition device for acquiring distance information between the plurality of recording elements and the recording medium." U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,094 issued to Tanaka et al. discuss "a leaf plate [which] is disposed in abutment, through a guide path of printing paper, with a feed roller whose peripheral surface is in contact with the guide path." By bringing the transported printing paper to the projections, "thus, the distance between the nose portion of the ink jet head and the printing paper in the printing position is made uniform and the quality of printing is improved." U.S. Pat. No. 5,393,151 issued to Martin et al. discuss "a printer mechanism to control pen-to-print medium spacing during printing." The platen includes ribs adapted for "reducing uncontrolled bending of the print medium in the print zone." The ribs "preferably extend parallel" to a direction of travel of the print medium. From my study of these exemplars of the contemporary practice and the art, I find that there is a need for an improved and effective apparatus preventing the head from inappropriately staining paper with ink by preventing inadvertent contact between the paper and the head.